The long trek to Kordin

Yesterday, I published a piece in which I expressed my firm conviction that the Vitals inquiry has brought the Labour government to its knees.

Today, after spending a whole afternoon reading and rereading breaking news headlines about the fact that the eternally disgraced trio – former prime minister Joseph Muscat, his former chief of staff Keith Schembri, and former health minister Konrad Mizzi – are facing up to 18 years in prison and a fine of up to €2.5 million, I am doubling down on yesterday’s assertion and adding another layer to it.

Let it be made clear beyond any reasonable doubt that this is the end of the road.

We are not talking about a minister who was caught red-handed giving a ridiculously generous contract to her boyfriend, or another who will be forever known as the guy who referred to his entire supporter base as Ġaħan.

We are speaking about a former prime minister and his elite inner circle facing a list of charges that are serious enough to warrant what practically amounts to a life sentence for a gaggle of middle aged men who thought they could play Scarface and get away with it: money laundering, bribery, trading in influence, setting up a criminal association, to name a few.

There is no recovery from something of this magnitude. The Labour Party demolished itself, the state, and the future of an entire generation, all of which were pissed away for personal profit. This isn’t something that can be swept under the rug after the furor dies down. Muscat, Mizzi, and Schembri aren’t going to be reshuffled to some lowly government department somewhere where they can hide their infamous faces. If the massive, multi-million euro freezing orders for their assets are issued by the court, they won’t even be able to use their ill-gotten gains to their advantage.

Of course, Muscat and his corrupt network will still do whatever they can do – including through the Labour government, which really is one and the same thing – to obstruct the judicial process. It’s really funny how some of the daily newspapers of this country are still somewhat afraid of calling Muscat the crook that he is. They still quote his totally false statements as if they were truthful, without bothering to fact-check every single detail that that lying bastard is throwing their way, aiding and abetting his attempts at stultifying court proceedings.

As fellow journalist Monique “tal-Esteblixment” Agius already pointed out on social media, Muscat’s line about not being asked to testify in the magisterial inquiry is total bullshit. He claims magistrate Gabriella Vella did not invite him to testify in the Vitals inquiry. He then attempted to claim a breach of his human rights by finding literally anything he could dig up about the magistrate’s family so he could somehow craft it into a narrative that is to be used against her. He then refused to testify when the magistrate did, in fact, invite him to testify, on the grounds of not wanting to prejudice his bullshit constitutional court case.

As for Egrant – well, the Egrant inquiry did not exonerate Muscat. The Egrant inquiry did not manage to find evidence that the Muscats owned that offshore company, which was one of three set up within the same week shortly after the Labour Party swept to power in 2013.

The Egrant inquiry did not manage to do what it was supposed to do because it was boxed in by the terms of reference which were drawn up by Muscat and his lawyers. The Vitals inquiry was initiated at the behest of a 150-page document authored by Jason Azzopardi. The framework for the Egrant inquiry was drawn up by a crook who stood to lose everything. The Vitals inquiry was drawn up by a seasoned criminal lawyer who has set out to eradicate corruption within government. Need I say more?

In a culture that venerates wannabe macho men and strong-arm politics, Abela must surely have hit rock bottom in the eyes of his own supporters, too. Tell us, dear prime minister: how does it feel to be dragged down to hell by your predecessor, who to this day shapes the talking points of the party which you think you’re leading? Are you even aware this is the case, or do you still think that you’re actually in charge? This is what happens when someone hands you power they’ve usurped through dirty means: they will take it back immediately when they need it and leave you there holding the bag like the idiot that you are.

However, as much as we’d all like it to be the case, it is far from over. While the end of the road is indeed on the horizon, the long trek to Kordin still contains many potential pitfalls. Bear in mind that this is an instance in which two of the sole, remaining functioning organs of democracy – the judiciary and what is left of the free press – are up against an entire mafia state that has been digging its heels in for the past eleven years.

In another column I published earlier this month, I appealed to the general public to dispel their doubts about whether we, as members of civil society who value our democracy, will ever manage to boot out these craven criminals. I argued that it is our duty to do whatever we can to achieve this objective, and that anyone who wants to just sit there complaining about the state of the nation without doing anything about it can either challenge their own internal resistance to rebellion or otherwise just please shut the fuck up.

Today, I’d like to ask you to do more than just participate. This is now an ‘all hands on deck’ type of situation. We are, after all, talking about the kinds of revelations which, in other countries with an actual history of defiance against the state, would have led to an overnight overthrow of the government. In Malta’s case, we have a government that is willing to do whatever it takes to get away with it and a population that, after a decade of gaslighting, finds itself lost in a maze of corruption and sleaze.

It is up to us to do whatever we must do to ensure that Muscat, Mizzi, Schembri, and all the other traitors who ran the country aground face justice, if it takes a day or 50 years to get there, it doesn’t matter. We owe it to Daphne, to ourselves, and to posterity.

I want every single person residing in Malta to understand that we are in one of those great crevices of history, a singular, watershed moment in which heroes are being forged and villains are sharpening their knives. Every protest, every vigil, every single goddamn expression of anger at all this injustice matters if you actually want to have a livable future. The trek is arduous, but it must be done.

In the words of Malta’s first criminal prime minister, do not simply limit yourself to being a spectator – it is time to become a protagonist.